The Kiss
by StoryLake
Summary: Follows "Let It Snow". Sarah's encounter with the Goblin King has left her with awakened feelings...and something else. A three-part short for Valentine's Day.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **This is a three-part short story and a direct follow-up to my earlier "Let It Snow". This should stand on its own, but if you have a chance, go read that one first (link from my profile page).

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the concept or characters from Labyrinth.

**The Kiss**

_A Labyrinth valentine._

"Mmmm," breathed Sarah, inhaling the steam from her raspberry latte. Held in both hands, her mug still trembled. She willed herself to relax into the worn wooden seat. Across the table, her best friend, Gi, gave her a crooked smile.

"Geez, Sarah, tense much?" There was a too-loud clatter as the older girl stirred a heaping spoonful of raw sugar into her coffee.

They were the only customers of the little coffee shop, a fact for which Sarah was intensely grateful. She wanted, no, _needed_ to talk, but she wouldn't risk being overheard. Tuesday afternoons were always dead, especially since the local movie theater started showing matinees for a buck. She smiled back at her friend and took a small sip of her drink, wincing slightly as the too-hot liquid scorched her tongue. She always did have a thing for heat. "Maybe a little," she said, eyes on the table, fingers twisting a paper napkin into shreds.

"Well spill it," demanded her friend. "Does this have anything to do with that boy you met over winter vacation?"

Sarah flushed, hating, in that moment, her pale complexion that revealed her emotions so readily. "He's hardly a _boy_," she said steadily, fingers still working at the napkin, which had surrendered unnoticed.

"Oh excuse _me_," mocked Gi, "I meant to say _man_." She reached over and rescued the beleaguered napkin, wiping the shreds smoothly onto the floor and rolling her eyes as Sarah flushed even deeper.

"He's not exactly that either." Sarah considered her words. "He's a magician."

Gi's eyebrows shot up and her smile grew wider and cat-like. "A magician."

"Sort of," said Sarah slowly, "he did some magic for Toby's birthday party and made these incredible snow sculptures..." Her voice trailed off as an image of impossible wings of ice fluttered across her mind's eye.

Gi snorted. "So he entertains kiddies and plays in the snow. Sounds like fun." Her tone implied otherwise. "What's got you so hot and bothered?"

Sarah groaned. _This was a mistake, _she thought wearily. "I am _not_ 'hot and bothered', I'm just, I don't know, confused." She took another sip of latte to hide her annoyance.

But Gi was savvier than she looked and backed off. "Why?" was all she asked.

Sarah frowned, tried to think of a way to describe her past without revealing everything and then gave up and gave Gi an abridged sketch, both of the night she wished away her brother and subsequently rescued him from the Goblin King and the more recent and puzzling encounter with said king.

Gi was rapt, her coffee untouched as she leaned forward, chin on hand, to catch everything Sarah said. "Unbelievable," she whispered, awestruck.

Sarah frowned. "You don't believe me?" She shook her head, suddenly wanting to be anywhere else. What had she been thinking?

Gi reached across the table and put a hand gently on Sarah's wrist. "I believe you," she said. She smiled broadly. "I can't believe that I do, but I do. I really do."

Sarah looked relieved. "It's been so _weird_," she admitted. "I think about him all the time."

Gi grinned and wriggled her eyebrows suggestively. "What's so weird about that?" She remembered her coffee then, took and sip and spit it out again. "Cold! I hate that!" She looked around for the counter guy to warm her cup but he had disappeared.

Sarah still felt warm and kind of itchy, like something was buzzing just beneath the surface of her skin. "It _is_ weird though," she said. "Before Toby's birthday I tried _never_ to think about him. I was always afraid he'd come back after Toby again." Her eyes took on a far-away look. "Now I just don't know. All those things he said about doing everything for me..."

"You think he really meant it," finished Gi. "It's like a fairy-tale come to life." She jumped up and carried her coffee cup behind the counter, helping herself to a warm-up. While she was back there, she scooped up a scone from the display case and carried it back in her mouth. "What?" she mumbled through the pastry as Sarah looked shocked. "I'm going to pay for it when he comes back. Geez."

"See that you do," Sarah said mildly. She looked around her then. It really was empty. "He must be in the bathroom," she said, jerking her thumb towards the deserted counter.

Gi just shrugged and gobbled the rest of her scone in huge, messy bites that made Sarah laugh. Her friend was a bottomless pit and you could always tell her last meal by looking at the stains on her shirt.

"What I want to know," said Gi, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and taking a swig of coffee, "is what you're going to do about your goblin-guy." She gulped the rest of her coffee down and looked over at the counter again, but it was still empty. She jerked her thumb in the direction of the men's room. "Do you think we should see if he's okay?"

Just then the store phone began to ring. Both girls turned to stare at it, the sound strangely loud in the empty shop. On and on, it rang with no one to answer it.

Sarah felt a chill run down her spine and she suddenly felt cold, as though someone had dropped an ice cube down her shirt. "Do you think we should get that?" she asked Gi, then leaped up to do just that, not waiting for an answer. It stopped ringing as she lifted it to her ear and she slowly set it back down.

Gi was knocking on the men's room door. "Hey!" she shouted, "are you okay in there?" There was no answer. "Hey!" she called again, "do you need help?" She turned to Sarah who had come over to stand with her. "Should we go in?"

Sarah shook her head. "We should call the police." But she made no move towards the phone, still staring at the bathroom door.

Gi put her palms on the door. "He might need an ambulance. We should check." She pushed it slowly open. "Hello?" she said, no longer shouting.

Sarah began to back towards the front counter but Gi whipped her head around and pinned her halfway there. "I...I..." She couldn't seem to explain the sudden dread she was feeling.

"Come _on_, Sarah," mouthed Gi, turning back to the open door in front of her. She began advancing.

Sarah shook off her paralysis and grabbed a broom instead. With something solid in her hands, she felt better. She crept back over behind Gi, who was bending down to peer beneath the three stalls. They all appeared to be empty, but Sarah was taking no chances. While Gi investigated a small closet at the rear of the bathroom, she pushed each stall door in turn with her broom.

Gi returned from her fruitless search. "You think he's standing on the toilet?" she asked.

Sarah had just finished and threw down the broom. "Obviously not, but it never hurts to check."

Both girls retreated to the brightly lit shop. "What about the women's room?" asked Gi. "Should we look there too?"

"Might as well," said Sarah, but instead of moving back towards the restrooms she retreated to their table and sank back wearily in her chair, closing her eyes.

From across the empty room, she heard Gi cry, "All clear in here!" and then the heavy tread of biker boots returning to her side. "Are you okay, Sarah?"

Sarah couldn't escape the feeling that she was somehow to blame for the disappearing coffee shop employee. She felt certain of it without any rational explanation whatsoever, but all she said was, "Just peachy, thanks."

Still sitting in darkness, she heard Gi clomp back over to the front counter.

"I'm gonna call the police now," said Gi and Sarah heard the beep, beep, beep of phone buttons being pushed.

_I wish the shop guy would return,_ she thought with despair. Sounding much too far away, Gi's voice rose and fell as she reported their situation. _He's got to be here. He MUST be here, we just didn't see him._

Sarah heard Gi replace the telephone and then "What the hell? Where did _you_ come from?" Her eyes snapped open.

Gi was gaping at the no-longer-missing employee who had just waltzed out of the men's room.

He spied the girls' expressions. "What? Everything okay, ladies?" He nimbly sprung across the counter and reached for a bar towel. "Sorry 'bout that, but you know," he blushed mightily, "nature calls." Lowering his eyes, he busily wiped the pristine counter.

Gi had closed her mouth and silently deposited $1.50 in front of him for her scone. He kept wiping and didn't acknowledge the cash.

"Let's get out of here," she said to Sarah and grabbed up her own purse.

Sarah had no choice but to follow. At the door she paused and turned back towards the still-busy counter-man. _It was me. It was all me._ She felt vaguely sick and also, vaguely excited. It was just the same way she had felt when Manny Fisher had kissed her in the seventh grade. The two feelings made her voice shake, just a bit. "Oh, um, if the police show up, tell them it was a mistake. And, uh, sorry about that." With a last look around, she fled out to the sunny afternoon.


	2. Chapter 2

Sarah and Gi sat cross-legged on Sarah's bed. Gi had found a baggie full of whole roasted peanuts in her purse and was pulling them out one by one, cracking the shells with a pinch of her thumb and forefinger and then tossing the shell in the general vicinity of Sarah's trash can. Sarah had her head bent forward and was rubbing the bridge of her nose and casting surreptitious glances at the pile of shells accumulating on the floor. Neither of them spoke, but the strange disappearing act at the coffee shop that afternoon was the elephant in the room, weighing them down and making conversation on any other topic impossible.

Finally, Sarah straightened her back, stretched and yawned and cleared her throat. Gi continued placidly munching peanuts. Sarah coughed and cracked her knuckles. Gi chewed and idly flicked a peanut shell that had fallen on her foot. Sarah tapped her fingers on her knees and cleared her throat a second time. Gi rummaged in the depths of the baggie for the very last peanut and having retrieved it, tossed the baggie in a not-very-graceful arc to land fully three feet from the trash can on the head of Sarah's second favorite bear, Guinevere. From outside Sarah's door came the shouts and cat-calls of her three dorm-mates who were playing strip poker with the boys across the hall. A loud clatter indicated one of them had knocked over the pyramid of Diet Coke cans stacked near the bathroom. Sarah felt her blood begin to boil.

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" she yelled, simultaneously pounding her fist on the wall next to her bed. Anxiety was hot lava bubbling up and out of her. Her fingers and head felt like they were on fire. "I hate living here! I wish you would all _go away!_" She grabbed a pillow and threw it at the door before flopping backward on the bed, all the anger ebbing out of her and a blush of shame creeping into her cheeks. She still hadn't learned to control her temper.

Outside her room, all noise abruptly ceased. Sarah sprung up as though being pulled by a string. "No..." she moaned, eyes turning towards her door and the silence beyond. "No, no, please...I didn't mean it."

_Oh, you didn't?_

Gi was looking alarmed now, her ruddy features draining of color. "What's the matter, Sarah? What did you do?" Her eyes, too, swiveled towards the door.

Sarah leaped for the door, throwing it open in one smooth motion and vaulting through it to the common area beyond. Playing cards and soda cans were scattered about the center of the room, along with several pieces of discarded clothing. Of Sarah's roommates, there was no sign.

Gi pushed past her and surveyed the room. "Maybe they ran out for snacks," she said hopefully.

Sarah stooped down and picked up two pairs of jeans. "Without their pants?" she asked and shook her head. "No Gi, I did this." She tossed the jeans back onto the floor and moved to the window. Outside it was just beginning to get dark. The window faced west across the main campus square and above the tall pines lining its far side, smoky blue clouds were being buoyed by the arcing colors of sunset.

"Well..." began Gi, coming up beside her. The older girl bent forward to place both elbows on the wide metal windowsill, sticking out her bottom and wiggling comically. "They _were_ being awfully annoying." She gave Sarah a wicked grin.

Sarah swatted her backside and suddenly both girls dissolved into laughter, sinking down onto the floor in a heap. "Not...not...," Sarah gasped for breath, wiping tears from her eyes and looking anywhere except at her friend. "Not funny!" she got out at last.

Both girls sat quietly, letting their breathing return to normal. Gi's eyes wandered to the calendar on the opposite wall. "Valentine's Day tomorrow," she said and sighed.

Sarah gave her a sideways look. "What?"

Gi shrugged and climbed to her feet. "Nothing, really. It's just...things always seem to go wrong at this time of the year." She turned around and pulled the blinds closed over the window, shutting out the brilliant orange sun sinking over the horizon. Darkness filled the little room.

Sarah was still sitting on the floor, knees pulled up to her chin. "I've got to fix this, Gi." She closed her eyes and wished her roommates would reappear. _Come back. Return!_ The silence continued.

"Well?" asked Gi, "How?"

Sarah opened her eyes wide to find her friend in the dark room. "It's not working. I need help." She struggled to her feet and fumbled for the light switch. Both girls blinked in the sudden brightness.

"Maybe they'll just come back on their own. Like the coffee guy?" Gi scanned the room for something to eat, finally spying a half-eaten bag of potato chips beneath a cast-off sweater. "Yum!" she mumbled around a mouthful, "sour cream and onion."

Sarah returned to her own room and made straight for the mirror on the closet door. Her face was a study in determination. "All right Goblin King," she said loudly, "I know this is your doing." She stared hard at her own reflection in the mirror, willing her message to go through to that far-away place. "Whatever you did to me, undo it _right now!_" For emphasis, she stamped her foot, hands on her hips like a storybook harridan.

Gi was standing open-mouthed in the doorway. "What the _hell_ are you doing?" she asked. "Are you calling..._him?_" Her eyes sparkled at the possibility.

Sarah ignored her. "Goblin King," she intoned, "I summon you. Appear!" In the mirror, her own reflection looked disappointed. She dropped her gaze, mind sifting wildly for any phrase that might do the trick. "Oh!" her eyes snapped back up as a thought struck her. "I...I wish the King of the Goblins were here. Right now!" Triumph lit her from within, but just as quickly faded when only her own image continued to stare back at her.

"It's not working," stated Gi.

Sarah turned to glare at her. "Well thank you, Captain Obvious." She turned back to the mirror, but it held not so much as a ripple. Feeling thoroughly deflated, she retreated to her bed. There was a noticeable crunching sound as her shoeless foot came down hard on a discarded peanut shell. "Ow!" she shrieked, catapulting onto the comforter. "Damn it, Gi! Would it kill you to clean up a little?" She rubbed her sore instep while the older girl sheepishly stuffed the now-empty potato chip bag behind her back.

"Sorry, Sarah, I..."

"Gah! I wish you would just...just...just keep your mouth closed so I can think already!" Sarah felt like she was feverish, her fingers were hot, her _head_ was hot. She rolled over and grabbed a bottle of water from her nightstand and gulped it down in three swallows. That helped a little. _One thing at a time, Sarah,_ she told herself.

It was then that she noticed the "mmpfth mmpfthing" sound coming from across the room.

The very small breeze stirred up by the baseboard heater may as well have been an arctic blast. Sarah felt her blood freeze as she stared at Gi. The older girl was frantically pawing at her lips, which appeared to be sealed. Completely.

Sarah staggered forward and gently touched a finger to her friend's lips. There was no way anything was going to get past them, food or water or words or _anything _else. "Oh, Gi," she moaned softly, "I am so, so sorry."

Gi regarded her with surprising calm and then moved to Sarah's desk. She found a notepad and pen and hastily scribbled, _Now what?_

Sarah hugged her and burst into tears. She sobbed noisily for a few minutes and then gradually stopped, her equilibrium restoring itself with its usual speed.

"C'mon." She pulled Gi out of the room. They found their shoes and bags and Sarah took one last look around before locking the door behind them. The hallway outside was deserted as well, long and blue and decorated with paper and lace hearts hastily tacked to the wall. Someone had put the initials of every girl and guy who lived on that hall randomly onto different hearts.

As they made there way towards the outside doors, Gi spotted Sarah's initials, S.W., printed neatly on a large pink heart along with the initial J. "Mumpth!" She stopped and pointed at the heart, raising her eyebrows to indicate a question.

Sarah wasn't really paying attention, her brain too busy considering her next action. She glanced briefly at the decoration and shrugged. "Who knows? Now come on already!" Grabbing Gi's hand she tugged her quickly out of the dorm.

In the empty hallway, all the hearts save one peeled off of the wall and fluttered softly to the ground.

* * *

Three hundred miles to the northeast, Toby Williams was talking to shadows.

He had been terribly bored, kicking up dirt with his new sneakers and whipping sticks through the air over the telephone wire. All his friends had other plans and his mother was hosting some kind of incredibly boring party with candles in the house. It was unbearable in there, so he had to come outside. His missed Sarah. She always had time for him and always had interesting ideas of what they might do together. He had wasted a good hour or so with the sticks and the dirt when he suddenly began to hear whispering in the rear of the yard. Naturally, he investigated.

If his parents could have overheard him, they would surely have been concerned. "Uh huh," he nodded, listening intently to the dark and shifting figures beneath the tall oak tree. "Oh!" and "Really?" and "Oh, no!"

At last the whispering subsided, and Toby bent down to retrieve something rolled to him across the grass. He scooped it up carefully and cradled it in his shirt like a kitten. Straightening his head, he nodded sharply to the shadows and turned to go back into the house. If he hurried, he should be able to hide the crystal ball in his room. Then he just had to figure out a way to get it to Sarah, and fast.

_What's it for? _ he had asked, but shadows would only whisper warnings. One thing was clear enough: it was a message.

* * *

Sarah came home to a still-empty dorm. The day was an utter disaster and all she wanted now was for it to be over. She had taken Gi back to her own apartment and elicited a promise to stay put until Sarah could get some help. How she was going to do that, she still didn't know. The phone rang.

Sarah warily lifted the receiver. "Hello?" She listened tiredly as her stepmother complained about Toby and how he had insisted on calling Sarah. It was an emergency, he had told his mom. Could Sarah imagine that?

Sarah could.

Finally Toby was allowed on the line. "Sarah!" His bright voice lent her some energy, even from so far away. "Sarah you have to come home, 'kay?" His voice grew muffled as though he were talking through his shirt. Sarah could just picture him pulling it over his head for privacy. "_Someone_ gave me _something_ for you. And you have to come get it, 'kay?" In the background his mother could be heard berating him for speaking nonsense.

Sarah smiled. It couldn't have been easy on Toby to convince his mother to let him call her. She had to admire his perseverance. "I'll try, Toby, but I've got a lot of work this month and remember, I don't have a car."

Her brother's voice took on an annoyed tone. Still muffled, and interspersed with asides of "just another minute, Mom!" and "I know, I know!", Toby pleaded with her: "You've got to come _right away!_ If you don't, they'll be gone forever and, and..." he seemed to struggle with what came next, like he couldn't quite remember what he was supposed to say. "And she'll _die!"_ he finally finished. This last part was said with a dramatic emphasis that would have done Sarah's real mother proud, but caused her stepmother to squawk and wrench the phone from Toby.

"You can come anytime, of course, Sarah," said the older woman coolly, "but your brother is grounded for the next week." Now it was Toby's turn to squawk. Sarah heard him clump upstairs to his room. You wouldn't think a newly-six year old could make so much noise with just his feet.

"Well...I...," Sarah's mind was racing fast. "Is there any way Dad could come and get me? Just for the weekend?" Her stepmother give a lengthy sigh.

"It's a long drive, Sarah, but if it's really important, I'll ask him." She could be heard tapping her nails against the phone table, a habit Sarah found particularly irritating. "I'll have him call you after dinner. Goodbye, Sarah." The dial tone sounded in Sarah's ear and she childishly stuck her tongue out at the receiver before replacing it.

The next hour was slow torture as she waited for her father to call. It seemed impossible that Toby could know anything about her disappearing roommates or Gi, but those things he said... _Well,_ she thought, _stranger things have probably happened._

Again and again her eyes were drawn back to the large closet mirror. She felt edgy, anxious, like she was being _watched._ "If you can hear me," she said at one point, trying not to feel ridiculous, "I really, really need some help." She paused. "Please!" Her only answer was silence and it was impossible not to be discouraged.

Finally, the phone rang and after a brief conversation it was settled that her father and Toby would drive up the following afternoon and visit with her, then they would go camping at a nearby state park for the weekend and visit with her once more on Sunday before heading for home. Sarah wondered if her father had forgotten the next day was a holiday, or if Karen, her stepmother, just didn't care about that sort of thing. If it was a problem, she felt sure she'd eventually get the blame for it, one way or another.

Sarah tried and failed to do some homework then, but at last had to admit defeat and just go to bed. Her stomach was rumbling and she realized she'd forgotten to eat dinner, but she refused to go in search of a snack. All she could think about was how hungry Gi was going to get before she was able to get help for her. And what if the _something_ Toby was bringing her didn't help Gi? What would she do then?

Alone in the darkness, it was several hours before she finally slept.


	3. Chapter 3

Sarah dreamed.

_She was chasing someone she couldn't see, following a line of silver thread that spooled out behind the object of her pursuit. She ran alongside a river, its placid surface reflecting a bloated moon which kept pace beside her. "Wait! Please wait!" she called out, but the figure ahead never slowed or came into sight. When she could run no more, she collapsed onto the ground, fingers twining in the gleaming thread. She pulled as much as she could to her, but the stuff was nearly as voluminous as moonlight and apparently just as insubstantial. Impossible to grasp, it seeped through her hands and wound itself around her legs and waist, tangling with her hair and pushing up and over her throat and lips until she resembled a silver mummy. Barely breathing and stretched out on the ground, she felt her limbs dissolving in the molten moonlight, leaving her hollow and filled only with the heat of a great longing..._

Sarah woke with a start and the hollow feeling of her dream revealed itself to be simple hunger. She felt sluggish and frustrated; both, she supposed, attributable to unsated hunger. But still...

She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and sat up, eyes turning towards the mirror like a compass needle pulled to north. Silver glinted at the edges of her vision and in the mirror, ripples spread out from the center as though it were a pool, disturbed by a stone.

"Hello?" She stood slowly, legs still heavy with sleep. The clock on her desk read 5 a.m. and the only light in the room came from the moonlight seeping in around the ill-fitting curtains. From out in the common room, music began to play and Sarah recognized her favorite Nik Kershaw tape.

"Someone's been in my room again! I hate that!" She let the music guide her through the darkness and pressed her thumb down hard on the cassette player, stopping "The Riddle" mid-song. The common room was empty, but from the other bedroom, low voices were murmuring. She remembered her roommates. Could they have returned? She tried to remember how long they had been missing, but a growing sense of discomfort distracted her. It was so muggy, the air thick and hot. It was hard to think clearly. The voices drew her on, the need to _know_.

Wary, she crept forward and pressed her ear against their door. Sweat dripped down the sides of her face, beneath her arms, and plastered her t-shirt to her chest. She still couldn't make out any words, just the low rumble of several voices all speaking at once. Steam seemed to rise from her bare feet, making everything wet. She reached for the doorknob and swore softly when her hand slipped and couldn't find purchase. Leaning hard now, she pushed all her weight into the door, wrapping the hem of her t-shirt around her hand to help her twist the knob. "Hello?" she called, "Who's there?" She continued trying to open the door, simultaneously pounding on it with her other hand and all the while the heat continued to build.

Behind her, the cassette player switched on.

She stopped struggling with the door, instead letting herself slide down to the floor. She must be dissolving, melting into liquid silver. Waves of heat blurred her vision. She stretched out on the cold cement tiles, letting it pull the heat from her body. Surely without it she would have burst into flame, so hot was her skin.

_I've got plans for us, nights in the scullery and days, instead of me..._ sang Nik Kershaw.

Sarah closed her eyes. Stars swirled behind her eyelids; at least, she _thought_ they were stars. There were so very many of them, all dancing in the dark. So very many. When strong arms scooped her up, she was too busy counting them to notice.

* * *

Out of the sea of blackness, voices swam to her ears. A cool breeze licked her hot skin and she hesitated, just a moment, before opening her eyes.

"Sarah!" Someone was tugging at her shirt.

Sarah blinked and rubbed her eyes. Toby was leaning anxiously over her. Behind him, her father stood with his arms crossed, eyes dark with worry. "What the... How?" She shook the last of the stars from her vision and sat up, surprised to find that she was somehow back on her bed, the small window behind her open to the afternoon sun. She had clearly missed several hours.

Toby threw himself at her and Sarah reached out and pulled him close, tousling his sandy-blond hair and mentally running through the events of the past 24 hours. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Nearly two o'clock," said her father. "Toby was so anxious to see you that we left this morning." He shifted his feet and put his hands into his pockets. The small room felt smaller than usual.

_Two o'clock! _All she could think about was Gi. She needed to check on her right away. She gently pushed Toby aside and climbed out of bed.

"Sarah..." began her father, but Toby cut him off.

"Sarah! I have to give you something!" The little boy reached into a small backpack and drew out something wrapped in a towel. He thrust it at her expectantly.

Sarah glanced to their father and then back to Toby. "Toby, I'm not sure we should..."

Her father frowned. "Where did you get that, Toby? What is it?" He reached out but Sarah quickly snatched it from Toby's outstretched hands and tucked it beneath her shirt.

"It's, ah, um, it's..." her eyes latched onto the red heart stenciled on the wall calendar. "It's a valentine."

"It's a ..." Toby started, but Sarah spoke over him.

"It's a valentine, from, er, that magician you hired for Toby's birthday." She stepped between Toby and her father so that she could gesture frantically to her little brother behind her back.

"A valentine?" asked her father, "Really?" He leaned around Sarah to look at Toby. "_That_ was your big emergency? A valentine?"

Toby stammered, "Well, uh, yeah, I..."

Sarah maneuvered around them both and backed towards her dresser. "It's my fault, Dad. Toby thought I'd be sad today without it, so, um, he wanted to bring it to me." She kicked herself for how impossibly lame that sounded, shifting the object behind her and using her fingers to pull out her sock drawer and dump it inside.

Her father was shaking his head slowly. "I didn't realize you had gotten to know that magician, Sarah." He moved to her bed and sat down heavily. "Isn't he a little old for you?"

Sarah felt her color rise and quickly said, "Oh, no, Dad, but you know..." she pushed the drawer closed behind her and slid into her desk chair. "It's not serious or anything. We're just friends, really." She cast around for a change of subject. "How did you get in here, anyway?"

"Through the front door, Sarah." He stood up, one hand rubbing the side of his head as though it hurt. "Toby and I should get going."

Sarah frowned. "Have you seen my roommates? Were they here?" She bit her tongue before more questions could slide out.

"Meet me out front, Toby..." There was a _click_ as the door closed behind him.

"He's just mad 'cause Mom was yelling again before we left." Toby shrugged as though this news was only to be expected. He indicated a plain cardboard box on the nearby coffee table. "She did pack some stuff for you, though. It might be cookies. Do you think it's cookies, Sarah?"

Sarah shivered, remembering Karen's "fiber specials", but Toby looked eager. "What _do_ you think is in it? Let's open it!"

Sarah glanced back at her doorway, picturing her father impatiently flicking his fingernails and tapping his foot out in front of the dorm. "Later, Toby. I need to find Gi." She reached for the phone and then stopped. "Toby," she whispered, "who gave you that crystal, really?" She paused, "It _is_ a crystal, right?" The smooth shape had been apparent even through the towel.

Toby was still eyeing the box, "Hmm? Yeah. It was the shadows..." He ran his thumb over the seam of the box. "Don't you think you should see what this is?"

"Shadows?" She lowered her voice to a whisper, "Do you mean goblins? Did the Goblin King give this to you?"

Toby was trying to pry his finger beneath the top flaps of the box and just shrugged in answer to her question. "Dunno," he said, "maybe".

Her father reappeared in her bedroom doorway. "Toby, time to get moving. I'm sure your sister has special plans for today." He didn't look at Sarah, but came over and herded a reluctant Toby away from the box and out the door.

"See you in a couple days, Sarah!" called out her brother over his shoulder. "Don't forget the valentine!"

_"Valentine?" _

Sarah whipped around at the sound of the new voice. The Goblin King was standing in her room, just in front of the closet mirror. Behind him, ripples of silver were spreading out across its surface.

He moved toward her, completely out of place in his asymmetrical leather coat, snug breeches and high boots. "Sarah," he said, raking her over with his eyes, "something..._peculiar_...seems to have happened to you in my absence."

Sarah instinctively backed away from him, but in the small room that amounted to only three steps before her knees came up against the ratty sofa.

"My, my, my..." He was way too close now, close enough to smell the distracting, wild _otherness_ of him, a weird yet exciting mix of leather and spice and something sweeter. He smiled his familiar mocking, lopsided smile and moved his hands slowly up and down in front of her, like a scanner at the airport. "You simply _reek_ of magic, precious thing." Both hands came to a stop somewhere in the vicinity of her heart. He cocked his head and regarded her, "how unexpected."

Her temper flared. "_Unexpected _ my ass. This has your fingerprints all over it." She tugged at the hem of her t-shirt, conscious of its bedraggled state.

"Oh you think so, hmm?" His regard was cool, his eyes glinting dangerously.

"I do." Her chin was set in a stubborn line. She shimmied out around him and grabbed a bathrobe from a hook on the wall; once covered, she felt less vulnerable.

"Didn't you get my present, Sarah?" He had followed her across the room and leaned closer than before, effectively trapping her against the wall. "I believe you called it...a _valentine._" He was smug, as though he had won a battle in the great war between them.

"If you were coming to see me yourself, why did you send it to Toby? Why are you here now? I called you..." She stopped speaking, uncomfortable with his growing grin.

He tilted his head and strands of his wild blond hair brushed her arm. Something like electricity sparked between them and he feigned surprise. "Why Sarah," he purred, "you know I have no power over you. But Toby..." he let the sentence hang unfinished.

Sarah was aware of every hair on her arm, every seam of her shirt and pants. "You leave Toby alone, Goblin King."

He raised one eyebrow and ran the fingertips of his free hand lightly along the soft chenille of her robe. "I can't Sarah. Don't you see that I can't?" He grinned fully then and she knew he mocked her.

But there was truth, too. Sarah saw that at last. "You couldn't come to me before, could you? Not without Toby here." She was caught between longing and repulsion. "What did you _do _to me?"

Something flashed in his eyes, but Sarah couldn't tell if it was dismay or relief. He stepped away from her then, but his eyes never left her face. "It's just a kiss, Sarah."

"A kiss?"

"A kiss of _magic_, Sarah, and a fleeting one at that." His grin had vanished.

Sarah tore her gaze away from his face and tightened the belt of her robe. "I don't have time for this. I have to check on Gi." She moved purposefully across the room toward her door, but was stopped by a hand on her arm. She held herself perfectly still.

"Your friend? She's fine. They're all fine, Sarah." His fingers around her arm exerted gentle pressure, not enough to hurt, just enough to be impossible to ignore.

"How do you know, Goblin King? How do..."

"Jareth, Sarah," hissed her captor. "I'm not _your_ king. Call me by my name." His grip on her tightened briefly, then relaxed.

"That's right, _Jareth_, you're not." She pulled herself from his grasp and entered her bedroom, ignoring the color still moving across her mirror. She removed the crystal ball from the drawer and spun around to face him again. "If they're all fine, _Goblin _King, then why send me this?" She tossed it at him and he caught it without looking at it.

"It's a way for you to call upon me," he said softly, "just you, without your brother needing to be nearby." In his fingers, the crystal spun like a globe.

"But Toby..." She was angry again and once more the heat within her was building.

Jareth shook his head. "Trust me, precious thing, your friends are all perfectly safe. The effects of your magic are...temporary. It's _you_ who are in danger." He moved closer to her and she resisted the urge to slam the door before he reached her.

"Danger? _I'm _in danger? My roommates... I made them disappear, but _I'm_ the one in danger?" Her robe suddenly was an unbearable extra layer and she tugged it off with feverish haste.

Suddenly he was right there, a hair's breadth from her. "Stop!" he shrugged out of his own coat and let it fall to the floor. His hands came up and caught her around the waist. "It would seem I also underestimated your innate capacity for fire. My...kiss...has become tangled with your own desire. It threatens to burn you up, Sarah, but I can help." He pressed against her, unbelievably cool.

Her hands came up to push him away, but the coolness of his chest was distracting enough that she let her hands remain resting there instead. "You don't know anything about my desire." Her voice was soft. She remembered the stars from her dream: oceans of stars, mountains of stars. Why did her thoughts keep dancing away from her?

He chuckled, low in his throat and bent his head so that his lips were next to her ear. "You're wrong, Sarah. Shall I show you how wrong you are?" His hands on her waist were moving, pressing her even closer.

An image of Gi's sealed mouth floated before her mind's eye. "No!" She pulled sharply away from him, her skin tingling. "I can't keep making people vanish...or have other things happen to them." Unconsciously, she leaned back towards him, still drawn to the coolness he promised.

Jareth sighed and plucked another crystal from the some hidden place. "I can bank your fire, Sarah," he said, "but I won't extinguish it."

She eyed the crystal on his fingertips, tracking its movements warily and nodded her agreement.

His elegant features took on a hard cast. He raised the crystal, hesitated, and lowered it again. Faster than lightening he moved forward and caught her up again, pulling her against him and lowering his mouth to cover hers.

As kisses go, his was soft but thorough. She felt the last of the unnatural heat ebb from her. Something else, sharp and bright, seemed to take its place. Without meaning to, she closed her eyes, letting the sensation wash over her.

A loud knock sounded at the outside door. "Sarah?" Gi's voice reached through and banished the last of her brain fog.

"A pity," said Jareth softly and she could no longer feel him against her.

She opened her eyes, not surprised to find herself alone in the little room. She smiled anyway and touched a finger to her lips. Behind her on the bed, a solitary crystal winked from the depths of her pillow.

Gi came bursting into the room, wreathed in smiles. "Geez, Sarah, you haven't showered yet? The free chocolate is going to be all gone!" Her friend bore no reminder of the previous night's trauma; no reminder and perhaps, no memory.

Sarah opened her mouth to say something and then changed her mind. Behind Gi, silver threads winked in the mirror like a promise. She smiled and picked her robe up off the floor, tossing it behind her onto the bed so that it covered the crystal completely. Grabbing her bathroom tote she hurried past Gi.

Chocolate sounded perfect.

**Fin**

_**Author's Note and Disclaimer: **__So we have our second interlude in the larger story of Sarah and Jareth, and more of the elements of that larger story are falling into place. I envision a couple more three-part shorts before the cycle is complete and doubtless I will attach them to upcoming holidays, just because. _

_I do not own the characters or concept of Labyrinth._


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